Ronald Allen

Ronald Ronnell Allen drove a delivery truck for Your Black Muslim Bakery. He was 31 when his body turned up at Berkeley’s bayside dump in April 12, 1982. His head had been nearly blown off by a shotgun.

Berkeley police reopened the unsolved case in December 2007 in the wake of the slaying of Oakland Post editor Chauncey Baileyfour months earlier. Police arrested leaders and associates of the bakery, charging them with crimes ranging from Bailey’s killing to assault, kidnapping, extortion, vandalism, grand theft and identity theft.

Testimony in criminal and civil complaints against Yusuf Ali Bey I — by young women who said they had been raped by Bey and bore his children as early as 13 — refers to a 1982 killing that matches the manner of Allen’s death.

In a 2005 deposition about her abuse,one of four women identified as “Jane Doe” told why she hesitated for years to go to authorities: Bad things happened to people who crossed Bey. She told of a man she knew as “Rashid” who drove a delivery route and sold baked goods from the truck. But he was rumored to be skimming money. One Sunday morning she heard he was found dead at the Berkeley marina, next to the dump. His head had been blown off with a shotgun.

The coroner’s report stated that Allen had been shot several times with a shotgun, twice in the head. Police said his family pointed the finger at members of Your Black Muslim Bakery.